Internet Mistakes Vietnamese Arlington Resident for Mother Teresa

The internet has inexplicably confused Mother Teresa with a Vietnamese resident of Arlington.

A viral image that has been making its way around the web since January, mostly via email, purports to be a photo of the late Catholic missionary at age 18.

In actuality, it is an old photo of a local resident named Tran Anh Phuong, who died in 2008.

Prolific online rumor killer Snopes could only find a tangential connection between the two women: an obituary of Phuong that included a quote from Mother Teresa, who died in 1997.

“God’s Gift to you is the Gift of Life. What you do with your Life is your Gift to God.” — Mother Teresa.

Our beloved Mother, Tran Anh Phuong, passed away on April 20, 2008 after a long illness. She was the eldest child of Reverend Te Ngoc Tran and Mrs. Tot Thi Nguyen. She resided in Arlington, VA for the past 33 years.

Our Mother attended Southeast Asia Union College in Singapore, majoring in English. From 1968-1972, while raising a young family, she served as a Vietnamese instructor at Ft. Bliss, TX preparing military officers to serve in Viet Nam. After a 19 year career as Executive Assistant for the Commission on Engineering and Technical System at the National Academy of Sciences, she retired in 1992.